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Willing Sacrifice
++ Ibex ++ Nestled to the right of the Magnanese Mountain range and occupying a wide, flat plain, the city of Ibex is host to a major portion of Cybertron's transportation centers. Used in ancient times to launch the long lost Ark-1, Ibex is still home to the Central Spaceport, which runs shuttles from Cybertron to some of its orbital stations and satellites, such as the Messatine mining station, the lunar penitentury of Garrus-1. Transportation hubs and development centers have sprung up all around the space port, along with long stretches of test roads and airfields, where bleeding-edge vehicle designs are researched and developed. The primary colors of the area are white, silver and pale blue, with dull gray roads and black and yellow hazard stripes interdispersed among working areas. Hangars, spaceports, bullet-shaped buildings and domes are the primary forms of archtecture. The Velocitronian Embassy is naturally located here, close to the Speedia - the planet's most expansive and famous racetrack, home to the Ibex Cup competition. The Ibex Center for Athletic Medicine is here, where speeder frames are maintained, honed and developed, pit crews are trained, and specialized fuel types are developed. Cybertron's most elite club, The Circle, is located a short distance away from the Speedia. Though the planetary races have been cancelled and space travel restrained, enterprizing (or bold) individuals have managed to gain access to locked down facilities, taking advantage of the empty tracks and abandoned crew stations for illegal races and illegal upgrading. Blurr is strolling about the streets of Ibex, peeking into here and there, talking to fans, and the like as he would generally be expected to do. Nothing out of the ordinary there, right? But the truth is he's become something more than just a racer...in fact, he's taken the place of someone who once tried to kill Shiftlock, after he quit his job and went rogue. Most would assume he's just looking for something flashy and new that he doesn't yet have in his massive collection of possessions, but is it in truth some/one/ he's looking for instead? Interviews with a few people around the tracks have placed Shiftlock as near one of the upgrade markets, looking over alternate wheel fittings. If Blurr hurries (and boy can he ever), he'll find her there, relaxed and at ease, but somehow a little more dinged up, scuffed and ... /chaotic/ than he might remember. Oh, yes. Blurr can definitely hurry. He zooms off toward the street where Shiftlock is to be found. Upon arriving at the upgrade market, he scans the crowd, and spots her looking over the fittings. He doesn't make a move yet, but hovers around the area, keeping tabs on her movements. She might get the feeling that she is being watched, after a few moments. She does, but she plays along, picking up a couple of tires that don't seem to fit her - maybe something for someone else? Apparently so. Putting them into the equivalent of a rucksack, she magnetically locks the pack onto her back, and starts to walk towards the road that leads out of town. If she's being followed, she'll know soon. Hm, those tires certainly aren't for her. Blurr follows her down the road, keeping a safe distance for the time being. If she appears to turn his way, he darts behind someone in between them, or makes to look as if he's talking to someone else or otherwise not paying attention to her. Shiftlock, unfussy and unhurried, transforms. She takes off down the road with a speed that would do a professional racer proud. She may not be Blurr-fast, but she's fast enough to leave 90 of the other racers in the dust. She's headed on the pancontinental expressway through Kalis, but the end point is Kaon, and there's a lot of security checks to get in. Blurr continues to follow her, and also transforms when she reaches the road and heads down the expressway. It's a good thing he's so fast, he has no trouble keeping a safe distance from her and keeping tabs on her at the same time. Plus it's easier to blend in, when they're all in vehicle mode. Shiftlock moves as normal along the road, at least until midway into Kalis; she abruptly takes an offramp - not slowing down, but doing a longslide right down the curve of the off-ramp, hugging the outer wall of the ramp and then slingshotting down into a lesser used access road. There's nothing below but entryways into the service roads and tunnels that run underneath Kalis' main power reactor. Continuing the pursuit, Blurr stays on the other side of the road but when Shiftlock suddenly makes an exit he waits until she's just gotten off and then swerves sharply across traffic, barely avoiding collisions with other traffic. Once he reaches the top of the ramp he scans below, spotting her heading for a service road. He transforms and jumps off midway down, slipping back to vehicle mode before he lands and continuing after her, heading for the tunnels. It won't be long before Shiftlock knows she's being followed. No one else goes the way she's going. Taking yet another road down, she passes through an old bulkhead that's been torn open by something else, ramping up and over the debris before plunging into the darkness. Not even the red utility lights that guide the way of servicemechs are still working here. The design of the tunnels is antiquated beyond either of their lifetimes, but the tunnel speeder isn't complaining. This is home turf, and she does not rely on optic relays to get around in the dark. Blurr is paying attention to his surroundings, too. And once they're off the service roads and heading toward the old bulkhead, he knows there's no way to avoid being noticed. No no one else will be 'happening' down these antiquated tunnels, because no one's using them for their original purpose any more. Thus, he decides now is the time to make his move. Suddenly, there is a bright light behind her, and someone closing -fast-. If she has a threat detection system, they're screaming at her that a target lock has been detected. Shiftlock's wheels perceptibly change shape and she drives up the side of the tunnel and onto the roof, slowing WAY down all at once, hoping to let Blurr overshoot her by some distance. It's a simple manuever, but it often does the trick. Not long after the target lock is detected, she is being shot at. High-energy photon streams fly at her as Blurr quickly closes the distance between them. Her trick works, for now. The speedster does overshoot, speeding past her and disappearing into the darkness ahead. The light fades from view...has she lost him? She's not sticking around to find out; curling back down to the bottom, she comes to a braking stop - and then immediately shifts into reverse, driving backwards as fast as she can. She might have to find out either way. It was a clever trick, yeah...there's no way for her to outrun Blurr, so it was only natural to conclude that the only real chance she'd have would be to out -slow- Blurr. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be enough. As she's hurrying backward, she may or may not catch a brief flash of blue light speed past her. And when she reaches the entry they had just come there, she'll find him waiting there for her, with his guns pointed straight down at her chassis. "Thought you could lose me, huh? Nice try." "I don't even know why you're following me with guns. I haven't done anything, and you have everything. Do you just kill empties for sport or something -- nevermind, I don't want to know. You probably do." Shiftlock immediately shoots forward. Blurr is very fast, but there is one drawback to using guns when you're fast: You can run right into your own weapon fire by -outspeeding it-. Shiftlock is faster than most supersonic jets underground, so those shots are going to have to try to catch up with her. Blurr doesn't use his weapons this time though. He doesn't need to. There is no way she can outspeed him. He transforms and pulls up next to her, chuckling. "Who said I was trying to kill you?" He swerves, attempting to knock her off course or slam her into a guard rail. "Besides, you aren't just any Empty, are you? I know what you're doing." "Why else would you be going down that tunnel no one ever uses?" Shiftlock, going forward into the tunnel again, has no guard rails to hit; it's the inside of a tube. She moves with Blurr in a corkscrew along the walls, attemping to prevent him from impacting her. "Oh, you mean how I'm delivering tires to a needy mech in Kaon that can't get them, and I don't want them confiscated by the thugs in Kolkular at the gates? Oh how -awful- of me. You don't know me and you don't know what I'm doing. Don't even presume to /think/ you do, you arrogant son of a glitch. Go home and get polished, and leave me alone." "But that's against the rules! You can't purchase goods in Ibex and sell them to Kaon. Subsection 3-B of Ibexian municipal code! That's smuggling." Blurr keeps up with her for now, continuing to attempt to run her into the wall or send her spinning. But since when did he know the rule book so well? "Those 'thugs' are just doing their jobs." "I purchased the goods with my own funds and am donating them to someone in need. Since when is charity against the law? Doesn't that strike you as really kind of weird, that you're hunting me down in a dark tunnel because I am trying to get a gift for someone? Nothing's stolen, no one is being hurt, it causes nothing but a positive result. There are mechs being beaten to death by Enforcers - illegally - and you're chasing someone buying tires. What the pit is wrong with you? Go AWAY." Shiftlock transforms into rootmode while on the ceiling and, once more, lets Blurr overshoot. She can keep doing this for awhile, because even a hovercar has to follow the law of inertia and try to slow down. She takes what precious seconds she has to try to losen the grate beneath her feet. There's a hole even lower, straight down, big enough for the average sized Cybertronian. It's going into Demon country. "Well if you put it that way I guess it is against the law. But the law is the law. And come on you know this isn't just about -that-. The tires are for the insurgents, aren't they?" The trick works again, but not quite as well this time. He manages to stop not too long past her, and zips back the way he came until he's standing behind her, the gun to the back of her head. "Did you really think you could get away from me? You know who I am, don't you?" "Of course I know who you are. I met you in Ibex, disguised as Halftrack and I tried to show you what was going on around you that you didn't know about. You freaked out and asked me to go to your home to get more element zero, and when I got there, suddenly you don't know me and you tried to kill me." She sighs and just stands there, arms folded. "They're tires for someone I -care about-, and that I want to be -physically well-. Why the pit are you wasting your time chasing me around? I'm just an EMPTY." She turns her head to try to glare at him. "You think I'm still a shifter? /Sorry/. Turns out I was part of a combiner experiment to try to trap a Shifter inside a normal cybertronian. The ezero just glued her into me. I ran out, she got free and now -this is it-. All I want is to be left /alone/." "You beat up Ratbat, among other things." Blurr reminds her. "Did you seriously think you wouldn't have to -answer- for that? Oh and you--" But when she starts going on about how they met in Ibex that one fateful cycle, he frowns and seems to falter, lowering the weapon. "Of course you know who I am, but I don't think--" No. Wait. Abruptly his face changes and he looks confused. "I...Shiftlock? You....you can't change into people anymore?" He steps back slightly, looking at his surroundings and he puts a hand to his head. "Oh Primus..." "... Blurr, you all right?" Doesn't matter if she has a gun to her head or not, he seems injured, and Shift is a sucker for wounded mechs and stray mechanimals. She turns partially to look at him, but doesn't make any sudden moves, just in case he flips out and tries to shoot her. Blurr's weapon retracts, as he continues to look distressed. He stops glancing around and stares at Shiftlock. "Sh-shiftlock? Why are you down here?" He suddenly looks concerned. "You look kind of roughed up." "/You/ did that!" she points out. "You tried to kill me, twice! You forgot who I was and then suddenly you're chasing me like petty police officer looking to make his arrest quota for the week!" She's exasperated by all this and it blurts out. She vents deeply. "Something happened to you. I'm not sure what, but someone did something to you." "I-I did?" Blurr looks to be on the verge of panic again. Realization seems to come upon him. "Oh Primus, I did..." He suddenly grabs her shoulders. "Shiftlock, please. Stop this. Stop me. I can't....I can't let this go on. This isn't right. You can't let it go on!" "Shhh," Shiftlock says, trying to get Blurr to calm down, taking his hands gently into her own. "I don't know how to help you, Blurr. I want to help you, but if they did something to your mind I don't have the skills to fix it. I don't even have Mercury to help me with that anymore, she could have sifted through your memories and repaired them, I think, but she's long gone in deep space." "Do you remember how this happened to you? Who did this?" Blurr is not calm. No. Not at all. "Then who can??? Who can stop this..." he sinks to the floor, sitting down hopelessly. He looks up at her question. "I...yes. Axle did it. But he's dead now. They replaced him. So now, Cipher does it. He was--" He stops, and a strange, blank look comes into his optics. Shiftlock does not believe for a moment that's a good thing. "... Scrap." She attempts to pick Blurr up, if she can manage, and get him out of the tunnels. Bad things happen when you sit there too long, and she's willing to risk his wrath if he flips out again. '' Justice is above all....Order must be maintained...Sacrifices must be made... '' '' '' '' ...Are you willing to sacrifice? '' '' '' "Yes..." Suddenly, the panic and fear is gone, and as she reaches the tunnel exit, the guns are abruptly out again and he fires at point-blank range, though he is not aiming to kill, only to cripple. "You will answer for your crimes against the state. You cannot escape the law. Nothing will stand in the way of justice." he recites, his voice cold and monotone. Shiftlock takes the injury -- but Blurr isn't QUITE the super marksman yet. She's nearly as fast as he is, and he's still learning. Fast wheels does not necessarily a sniper make. She transforms to seal the leak on her upper armor and then charges into Blurr to knock him off his feet before driving, well, straight off a precipice on the other side of the road and tunnels! She'll look as if she's fallen into a deep crevace.... is she dead? Without crawling in and checking thousands of feet below, it'd be hard to tell.